Fun at the Neighbors

Every week we take Rose down to the neighbors house to play with their dog, Graham. Dave and Connie, Graham's parents and our sweet neighbors, have become like pseudo-grandparents to William and enjoy seeing him regularly. They have even done some babysitting for us which allowed us to go on our first date after William was born, and a few more times since. William loves them, especially playing peek-a-boo and marveling at Dave's beard! Thought I would share a few pics we got last week while the doggies played!

Rosebud and her best friend, Graham

William Turns One!



November 20th, 2011
Birthday morning, enjoying some banana!



I can't believe my little boy is already a year old. Could it really have gone by so fast? Wow! William was a lucky boy and had both sets of grandparents come to visit for his first birthday, even Uncle Whyatt came to celebrate! We had a great time, even though he came down with a little cold the day before his birthday, he still managed to enjoy himself. We had a small birthday party and William got to try cake for the first time!

William has continued to amaze us with how wonderful he is! Such a sweet boy that loves to cuddle and give kisses! He is so close to walking, has even done a few independent steps, but hasn't quite mastered the skill yet. However, he is a very proficient crawler, and really enjoys escaping from his mom and dad as quickly as he can while cracking up, especially when we are trying to change a diaper or put clothes on! He has four teeth on top (with one more on it's way) and four on the bottom. His favorite activities are reading books, listening to music (it gets him dancing every time, so adorable!), going for walks or hikes, playing with anything he is not supposed to (aka the remote, the TV, mommy or daddy's phone, etc!), swinging, and playing with kitchen utensils like the ladle or the wooden spoons. He also really loves rolling around in his baby walker. We pulled up most of the rugs and he just loves rolling around the house, 'chasing' after mom, dad and Rose! William talks to us all the time now, but the best we can make out on a regular basis is Dada, Momma, and Done...when we say "all done" with meals, books, bath time or whatever we might be finished with he promptly agrees "Done!"

The day after his birthday William had his 12 month check-up with Dr. El. His stats are as follows:

Weight: 21.4 pounds

Height: 29.5 inches

Adam and I just love the wonderful job of being parents. William has brought us more joy then we thought was possible. He is truly special and we are so thankful for every minute! We can't wait to see what the next year brings us with our beautiful son. Happy Birthday William, we love you!

William's First Birthday Cake

We had fun animal masks for the children, the big kids enjoyed them too! 
Grandpa Bill, William, Grandpa Rich, Daddy Adam and Uncle Whyatt

Yum!

One of the cool birthday gifts from Grandma and Grandpa G
Abby the rocking Giraffe!

Happy Halloween!



Our neighbors carved this monkey face pumpkin, it was too cute, we had to get a picture!

 For William's first Halloween he was a monkey, naturally, since he is our little monkey! Grandma Jo found the costume and we agreed it was perfect. My favorite is the stuffed belly! So adorable. William enjoyed visiting a few of our neighbors to "trick or treat", but he passed on the candy, like a good boy (not yet William!)

Hiking

When the weather was still semi-decent we started hiking some new trails with William in tow. He seemed to really enjoy the new scenery and his new view from the back-pack carrier. Of course Rose loves to go on hikes so the family enjoyed some fresh air, beautiful views and a little exercise! It is amazing how many beautiful areas there are to explore right in Portland's back yard. Each of these hikes are less than 45 minutes away, at the most. We are lucky to have the opportunity to have such beautiful surroundings.

Mirror Lake

Sandy River
Thousand Acres Park

11 Months at the Pumpkin Patch!

 We went to the Pumkin Patch and William had such a great time playing with the squash, checking out their farm animals, and doing a little farm-stand shopping! William just continues to be our happy little boy, diligently working on his "walking" skills and growing every day. He eats everything he can get his hands on, and has lengthy conversations with us (which I really wish I could understand!) He is so much fun to be with, Adam and I are truely blessed with a wonderful child!

The Pumpkin Patch
Savie Island, OR
Oct, 2011

Best Friends! Our visit to Chico.

Shower time!

September 2011

"This is how we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth...
this is how we brush our teeth before we go to bed!"

10 Months Old!

Sept. 20, 2011   10 months old today!

Wow, I am a little behind on this post but we have been busy! William turned 10 months in September and he is a busy boy! Adam and I are loving every minute of watching this boy grow, he is so much fun. He is such a happy and sweet child, we could not have asked for anything more. He is active as ever and loves practicing "walking" while hanging on to anything he can, especially mommy or daddy's hands. When we are hanging out at home he loves heading straight for the stairs and climbing up them over and over again. He still loves his Johnny Jump-up door-way swing, specifically spinning round and round in it, it almost makes us sick to watch it! Some other favorite activities is playing in the Tupperware drawer and bath time. He still doesn't sleep through the night, and napping is not his strong point, but we are working on both! Adam and I just feel blessed to have such a special and wonderful little boy. William, you are the best!

We recently had two visitors up our way; the first was Uncle Alex, or Uncle Al as we like to call him (to distinguish him from his fiance Alix!) William had a really good time hanging out with his uncle, and his daddy really enjoyed spending time with his brother. Al lives in Maine currently so we definitely do not get to see enough of him. We had some great weather while Al was here. Adam even got to teach him the 'ropes' of climbing trees. The two of them thought it was hilarious to make me a nervous wreck, and even "cheersed" on it while Al was still up in the tree. We had a really great time visiting with Uncle Al and hope he makes it out this way again soon.

Then Momma Jo came out to visit when Will turned 10 months. We had a great visit. William loves seeing his Grandma Jo!

William's 9 Months Old and is a Traveling Boy!

 William is 9 months old!

 He had his check up with Dr. El today and he is 19.5 lbs and 28 1/4 inches. He is such a wonderful boy, Adam and I are loving watching him grow. He loves singing songs with his mom and dad, his favorite, by far, is Itsie Bitsie Spider , but we recently have been exposed to a new song that might become a new favorite called I Like Elephants! For the few of you who were present when the song was discovered; I know you will appreciate it being a freqent in our household! :) For those of you not familiar with this wonderful childrens tune please you-tube it, I know you'll love it too. We found it while on a long car ride with Grandma and Grandpa Gonnsen where Diane and I were trying everything during the last "20 minutes" of the car ride to entertain William. I was looking up childrens songs on you-tube to play for him and we came across this "winner". Of course, William was totally into it, to the dismay of everyone else in the car. It turned out to be quite the entertaining experience.

William has become quite mobile! He love practicing walking while holding on to someones hands, and he is pulling himself up on everything and walking around, sometimes with only one hand on! Adam and I are chasing him around these days, he's getting quick! We are enjoying some great weather here in the Northwest and we all love being outside, William gets to go on a lot of walks. He really enjoys visiting with our sweet neighbors, Connie and Dave and their dog Graham, even though he is occassionally assaulted with "kisses" from Graham and Rose while he is crawling around on the grass. William has also been enjoying lots of new finger foods, blueberries and cheese are some favorites right now (his Wisconsin roots coming through!)

Great Grandpa Louis Maday meeting great-grandchild #30!

The meeting of four generations on his Dad's side: Adam, William, Grandma G (Dianne), and his Great Grandpa Maday

Yep, that's right...We had a baby in a bar!



"Pullin' tabs" with Grandpa Bill

  William has been the traveling baby lately. We all just got back from Minnesota where he got to meet his other Great Grandpa and Grandma, and the rest of the Gonnsen and Maday gang! He loved looking out the window during landing on each plane ride (just this trip it was four plane rides with the one-stop both coming and going.) We had a great time in Minnesota. We stayed at Adam's Grandpa's farm for the first few days in southern Minnesota. His Aunt Mary and Uncle Denis threw a big family barbeque one night, it was so much fun to see everyone. Everyone thought that William looked just like his daddy! There was a huge group of little girls there and only two little boys! William had so much fun meeting so many of his Great Aunts and Uncles, and his (second??) cousins. Adam and I enjoyed having so many people around who wanted to hold William for a while :) The next day Grandma Dianne introduced me to "pullin' tabs" and the favorite local pub, which is basically a quick way to lose some money, but it was fun! William even got to pull a few tabs, but he didn't win anything, so much for beginners luck!

Uptown Minneapolis

This is a statue representing Peace at the Civil Justice building in Minneapolis, note Bill in the bottom left corner for an idea of just how huge this marble statue was. Impressive! It was three stories tall!

After visiting the farm we went north to the Twin Cities and had dinner at Adam's Aunt Brenda's house, then spent a few days visiting Adam's sisters and our nephew Owen. William, Adam and Owen got to swim together one night. William didn't know what to think about the big pool! We all spent a day at the Mall of America, where William had a blast watching all the busy commotion. Then a day in Uptown Minneapolis and St. Paul. Unfortunately William started coming down with something during the last day and was not a very happy guy, but overall we had a great time visiting with everyone. It seems to go by in a flash when you are on vacation, but luckily we will be seeing all the Grandma and Grandpa's soon for Williams first birthday! Thank you Bill and Dianne for showing us a great time in the Mid West! We miss you guys!

The weekend before we went to Minnesota we drove down to Bend, Oregon for a night to visit with our good family friends, Clem and Robin, while my parents were there to visit them. We always have a great time seeing them! My mom and I even found matching hat's to get in the sunny weather!

William enjoying being tickled by Grandpa!

Meeting His Great Grandpa

 




Four generations together: William's Grandma Jolene (my mom), his Great Grandpa Wally Tellers, William and Me!



William and I just got back from a trip down to Southern California to visit my mother's side of the family and William got to meet his Great Grandpa for the first time! It was so fun watching the two of them together, and my grandpa was so great with him, even allowing William to pull on his hair then cracking up about it! My mom's family had a little get-together dinner at my Uncle Mark and Aunt Dawn's house and William loved meeting and getting tons of attention from his great aunts and uncles! It was a wonderful time, we definitely don't get to see all of them enough.



Giggles with Great Grandpa!



Kisses from Grandma!

We also got to visit with some of our good family friends, the Quirks! While hanging out at their house William decided he would try his skills on their stairs, and after a few assisted steps he got it down and was able to get up about 8 steps on his own. I could not believe what I was watching, he is just getting so big and strong! It was so nice visiting with everyone, wish it happened more often!

Joey, Lindsay, William and I

William getting some help up the stairs from Jean

A proud grandma met William at the top of the stairs!